Sunday, November 06, 2005

The lawmakers requested the inquiry after (California Democratic Representative Howard L.) Berman received complaints about (chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors Kenneth Y.) Tomlinson from at least one employee at the board, officials said. People involved in the inquiry said it involved accusations that Mr. Tomlinson was spending federal money for personal purposes, using board money for corporation activities, using board employees to do corporation work and hiring ghost employees or improperly qualified employees.

The board, whose members include the secretary of state Condoleeza Rice, plays a central role in public diplomacy. It supervises the government's foreign broadcasting operations, including Radio Martí, Radio Sawa and al-Hurra; transmits programs in 61 languages; and says it has more than 100 million listeners each week.

Meaning, naturally, that Tomlinson is involved in American propaganda.

Now, I'm all for marketing to the rubes. Let the rest of the world think America is still the once great nation it once was. But that Tomlinson was head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was anathema to me. We have Fox News to act as the propaganda arm of domestic pudwhackers whose only concern is beer and hooters.

So Tomlinson resigned after an investigation by the CPB board revealed that he had misappropriated funds. And this new investigatin at the Broadcasting Board of Governors says that, it too, has had funds that were under Mr. Tomlinson's control diverted to inappropriate activities. (side note: Karl Rove helped Tomlinson get both appointments, as the Times article makes clear)

All this on the heel of the Libby indictments, where a CIA agent's identity was outted, possibly illegally (that inquiry is continuing), thus endangering our national security and certainly our diplomacy.

Hmmmmm......"diplomacy"...."national security"...who's been at the center of all that since Bush was appointed?

"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things...every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing